Kiss - Destroyer (1976)

Destroyer or the first successful studio album by the infamous four New-Yorkers in make-up and high heels.

After getting a smash hit with the live version of Rock And Roll All Nite off the album Alive!, a classic that should be reviewed here soon, the band headed back to the studios, working with producer Bob Ezrin, producer of Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, and who will later produce Pink Floyd's classic The Wall. The first single to be released, before the album comes out, is the classic Kiss anthem Detroit Rock City, with a little Peter Criss' song as the B-Side, Beth, a song just thrown there to make Peter happy but which will turn out being the actual hit single. Other classics on this album are God Of Thunder (which was to become the Demon's anthem, having him perform his bass solo with blood drolling/spitting before the song during concerts), the anthemic Shout It Out Loud and Do You Love Me (which Nirvana covered during their MTV Unplugged performance), but some hidden gems are to be found on this one as well, like Flaming Youth, Great Expectations (featuring a children's choir), King Of The Night Time World, which has rarely been heard separated from Detroit Rock City, or Sweet Pain which had Hollywood Vampyres' guitarist Dick Wagner on lead instead of Ace Frehley, who was quite unhappy with working with Ezrin. Tracklisting goes:

A1. Detroit Rock City

A2. King Of The Night Time World

A3. God Of Thunder

A4. Great Expectations

B1. Flaming Youth

B2. Sweet Pain

B3. Shout It Out Loud

B4. Beth

B5. Do You Love Me ?

Out of all the Kiss albums, this one could be the most influential and is often mentionned as a big favorite of the Kiss Army, along with Alive! (1975), Rock And Roll Over (1976) or Creatures Of The Night (1982), which I may discuss soon here as well. Personally, I think it's among the best albums Kiss has ever recorded, a very essential piece of music. I do own 2 copies of this one: a french pressing by Vogue and a german pressing by EMI Electrola which has an altered logo (see picture).

King Crimson - Starless And Bible Black (1974)

When it comes to progressive rock, one of the biggest names has to be King Crimson. Robert Fripp (guitarist and only member who remained a member of the band) and his friends are clearly one of the greatest bands of all times. 

Starless And Bible Black is the 6th album by the Crim', the second with John Wetton on lead vocals after Larks' Tongues In Aspic released the year before and before Red released later the same year (1974), Red being the last album by King Crimson before the group splits before Fripp starts using the name again in 1981 for his Discipline project.

The line-up on this album is composed of David Cross (violin, viola and keyboards), Robert Fripp (guitar, mellotron and devices (?)), John Wetton (bass guitar, vocals) and William "Bill" Brudford (drums). The tracklisting goes:

A1. The Great Deceiver

A2. Lament

A3. We'll Let You Know

A4. The Night Watch

A5. Trio

A6. The Mincer

B1. Starless And Bible Black

B2. Fracture

Some trivia regarding this album:

most of this album was recorded "live" with some studio overdubs, most of the live stuff being from a show played in Amsterdam in 1973 and which has been released on CD (well, a 2-CD set) in 1997 as The Night Watch. 

A 4-CD set (now 2 2-CD sets) featuring live material from the Wetton era (1972-1974) was released in 1992 under the title The Great Deceiver.

While the titletrack of this album is an instrumental, the line "Starless and bible black" can be heard in another King Crimson song (Starless, from the album Red)

Personally, I'd say this masterpiece is among my very favorite King Crimson albums along with Lizard (1970), Red (1974), In The Court Of The Crimson King (1974) and In The Wake Of Poseidon (1970). The first side has some very nice tracks, The Great Deceiver, Lament or The Night Watch, the only songs with lead vocals are solid material, The Night Watch being one of my very favorite King Crimson songs with a very moving motive (the song almost makes me cry, that can tell alot) while Lament has really beautiful harmonies and The Great Deceiver is merrier, with a jazzy feel. The rest of the album has good instrumentals, We'll Let You Know being a pretty good prelude to The Night Watch while Trio, which is made up of bass, guitar and violin has its moments. The Mincer is probably my least favorite track, it's dark and not really thrilling but the 2 pieces off side B are also quite dark, though more interesting. Fracture is a very long and complex instrumental, having some parts which are reminiscent of the instrumental pieces Larks' Tongues In Aspic off the album of the same title.

Kiss - Dynasty (1979)

Dynasty or the beginning of the end for the original line-up of Kiss. The band had become a big sensation in the US in 1977/1978 yet, like every trend, Kiss was to fade away... There were some problems in the band, linked to drugs, alcohol and ego and to avoid a departure of Peter Criss, who felt, after the success of Beth (from Destroyer, an album I'll discuss later), he could be a successful solo artist, each member did a "solo album". These 4 albums, which I'll discuss later as well, had still a Kiss logo on it and were named after the member performing. They were released in september 1978.

Anyway, it's in this "egoes at stake" situation that Kiss entered the studio and "reunited" to record their 7th studio album (excluding the studio side of Alive II and the solo albums). The problems with Peter Criss kept going though, and Kiss had to hire a session drummer, Anton Fig who had appeared on Ace Frehley's album, to record the album while Peter Criss only contributed to one song, Dirty Livin' while Paul Stanley had 3 songs (Sure Know Something, Magic touch and the disco-rock hit I Was Made For Lovin' You), Ace Frehley 3 songs as well (Hard Times, Save Your Love and a cover of The Rolling Stones' 2,000 Man) and Gene Simmons 2 songs (Charisma and X-Ray Eyes). The album was produced by Viny Poncia, who produced Peter's album the year before. The following tour wasn't much better: problems with Peter Criss were more and more important, and one could never tell whether the night would be good, bad (irregular tempo, Beth badly done, see the Largo 1979 concert) or if Peter wouldn't cause trouble, causing a fight after throwing sticks at Gene or simply stopping playing in the middle of the concert. Needless to say, Peter left the band at the end of this tour, in december 1979 though it was made official only in may 1980.

The album itself now: it was released in may 1979 and had nice features: a merchandise order form and a poster with Kiss in black straightjackets with a grey background on which one could see a Kiss logo. The out of North America pressings had only a poster, though the Japanese pressing had a booklet with credits in japanese, the poster and the lyrics in english and japanese.

Interestingly, the back cover had the titles in alphabetical order rather than in the running order.

It has 9 tracks:

A1. I Was Made For Lovin' You

A2. 2,000 Man

A3. Sure Know Something

A4. Dirty Livin' 

B1. Charisma

B2. Magic Touch

B3. Hard Times

B4. X-Ray Eyes

B5. Save Your Love

Personally, I'd say it's a pretty good album, though I sometimes get sick of I Was Made For Lovin' You, which isn't really the best song Kiss has done nor the most representative of their catalogue. The other tracks are hidden gems though, too bad only IWMFLY and 2,000 Man were played live on a regular basis (though Sure Know Something was played on the MTV Unplugged and Paul played Magic Touch during the Live To Win Tour in 2006/2007). I do own 3 copies of this album: a french pressing without the poster, a complete US copy and a Japanese pressing with the booklets.

Genesis - Three Sides Live (1982)

Okay, here's the first record off my (huge) collection I will discuss.

It's a live album by Genesis, recorded during the Abacab Tour in 1981 and released in 1982. Two versions exist, one 100% live album (with 3 tracks from 1976 on side 4 and this one is the only version available on CD) and a version with a studio side, which is the pressing I own (according to wikipedia, this one were a US tracklist as opposed to the 100% live album which were a UK release).

The line-up performing here is composed of Phil Collins (drums, vocals), Tony Banks (keyboards) and Mike Rutherford (guitar, bass guitar) on the studio material with Daryl Stuermer (guitar, bass guitar) and Chester Thompson (drums) being added to the previous 3 on the live material.

The tracklisting of the LP I have (with the studio material on side 4) goes as such:

A1. Turn It On Again

A2. Dodo

A3. Abacab

B1. Behind The Lines

B2. Duchess

B3. Me & Sarah Jane

B4. Follow You, Follow Me

C1. Misunderstanding

C2. In The Cage/Cinema Show/Slippermen (medley)

C3. Afterglow

D1. Paperlate

D2. You Might Recall

D3. Me And Virgil

D4. Evidence Of Autumn

D5. Open Door

D1-D3 were recorded in 1981 (they are Abacab outtakes) while D4 and D5 were recorded in 1979.

It's a great album if you ask me, with a solid musicianship and great lead vocals. The song choice is really nice and I would recommend this one to people who wanna discover Genesis, though several other albums by Genesis could also be very well-suited.

Welcome

Welcome to Paul's Records Collection, a blog I've decided to create to talk of the (many) records I own. By records, I mean LP albums.

Important: I don't plan and won't post any download link.